Method for overcoming great differences of height with high-speed passenger traffic



June 7 Y F. KRUCKENBERG METHOD FOR OVERCOMING' GREAT DIFFERENCES 0F HEIGHT WITH HIGH SPEED PASSENGER TRAFFIC Filed Jan. 24. 1925 2 sums-sheet 1 Affarneya,

.Junq 21, 1927. 1,633,214

F. KRUCKENBERG METHOD FOR OVERCOMING GREAT DIFFERENCES 0F HEIGHT WITH HIGH SPEED PASSENGER TRAFFIC Filed Jan. 24. 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 17 HWI M 1;

Patented June 21, 1927.

uarrso STATESPATENTOFFICE.

FRANZVKIRUCKENBEBG, or nnrnnmnne, GERMANY.

METHOD FOR OVERCOMING GREAT BIFFERENCES 0F HEIGHT 'VTITH HIGHSPEED- PASSENGER TRAFFIC.

Application filed January 24, 1925, Serial No.

lVhen it is required to raise a whole railway train to greater elevations, without having recourse to separating the different units, it is performed by means of layingthe track in so called serpeutines, by means of. ramps, viaducts and spiral tunnels so that the gradients and curves are not too severe for the power of the locomotive. lVit'h a high speed railway, however, in which, instead of express-trains a hundred yards in length following eachother at long intervals, but single small quick cars, running on a mono rail, at frequent intervals are employed, more simple means can be used. It is possible, e. g.',to raise the separate cars by means of lifts, rack-rail or cable-way cars. All these means, however, have the disadvantage of interrupting the continuity of traffic. They interrupt thesingle switchless track, the outstanding advantage of the briefly described high speed railway, which makes possible with safety the extremely high speed, with theindependence of acornplicated time table, that is necessary n the normal railways, and which makes ELISGIVICG of one car per -minute possible. If these advantages are to be retained it is impossible to introduce into the track arrangements with other means of operation, which have their own natural period of working, and which have an adverse influence on the whole flow of traffic. 7 v

This invention concerns an arrangement, that on the one hand avoids all these disadvantages and-on the other hand makes it unnecessary to construct expensive forms of track for overcoming great difference of elevation. This is done by making use of the special quality of the suspension car, which permits it to traverse sharp curves at a considerable speed, without having recourse. to great superelevation, in other words that the centrifugal force on the car causes it to swing outward, though it should be noted, that the passengers cannot observe this. This property makes it possible to lay the track in quite sharp spirals or wind it round a tower like the threads of a screw. I In Fig. 1, the case is shown, that the high speed railway must climb up to al plateau 1, which has steep sides, against which are leaned the towers 2 and 3.

Fig. 2 shows a section through a narrow valley, through which flows a stream. The

high speed railwayhas IUllOWECl this stream 4,571, andin Germany November 28, 1924.

until the position beyond which it cannot go for some reason. Instead of climbing by means of spiral. tunnels, viaducts and ramps to the height 5, the track is wound round a tower 6, that is built in the valley, and can be supported on both sides of the valley. lVhere necessary the construction can be formed as a dam 7, which protects the lower part of the railway against highwater, when the traffic tower can contain a way withpower. The entrance to the tower isthrough the door 8 and the exit over the bridge 9 and vice versa.

The traffic tower can also be constructed power station, e. g. for supplyingthe rail- I l infiat country. In Fig. 3 the case is shown,

in which a river, on the shore of which is situated a great town, which is a terminus of track must he very high over the surface of the river, in order not to interfere with the passage of large vessels. It is impossible to carry the track on a long embankment into the center of the town, owing to the great number of buildings. shore of the river isconstructed a tower-like sky-scraper 10, outside or inside of which runs the track 11 in spirals, so that the cars can travel from the bridge 12 to the tunnel 13. In this case also, it is possible to utilize the tower at the same time for other purposes, which is necessary for economical reasons because of the high cost of land. The tower can be built to serve at the same time as business offices, warehouse, or terminal station for any kind of trafiic, which can ascend the tower by means of spiral roads or lifts. a

For an example in Figs. 4 and 5 is shown Therefore on the.

a tower in vertical section and horizontal section on A-A, which combines a high speed railway station with a very great station and garage for automobiles and business offices orwarehouse. The concentric walls 14 and 15 enclose a space for the up and down tracks 16 and 17 of the spiral railways, also the parallel running entrance and exit roads 18 and 19 of the autos. These roads climb in every quarter revolution the height h (Fig. 4-). The different spaces shown in vertical section as rectangles have their use indicated for the sake of; clearnes the suspension cars shown by means of circles the autos with rectangles. Inside the walls at a height equal 7L platforms 20 are arranged, which serve as garages for the autos. The automobile roads at every quarter turn reach the level of one of these platforms, so that the traliic can reach them conveniently. The difference of level between two roads is 2 so that the exits 21 of the roads l9 and the entrances 22 of the roads 18 are diametrically opposite (Fig. 15), in such a way that they are spaced from one platform to another at 90 The arrows show the direction of movement of the cars. In this way we can use the room most economically. In the middle of the tower there are passenger lifts 23, which for the sake of clearness are only shown in plan iew. Naturally means for transporting goods vertically can also be incorporated. The in and out going rails are indicated in plan view by means of dotted lines. It can be seen from the lines 16 and 1'7, that with such a tower the change of direction of the railway may be as sharp as required or in other words the angle (Z may be chosen at will so that the streets and 25 may be followed.

If there is sutlicient ground space, we

may build round the cylindrical wall 14 other walls 26, providing space for purpose as required. Because daylight can enter very easily, they would be well suited for business offices, in which case precautions for insulating them from the noise of the cars inside the tower must be taken. These rooms can be so arranged as to be reached by the automobile roads very easily. Similar rooms can also be arranged above the spiral roads. 1 t the same time it is possible to arrange the spiral roads outside the walls of the tower or both inside and outside. In the latter case the rails of both tracks can be laid in the same handed spiral with the tower wall between them, or their planes can cross, so that they are going in right and left handed spirals respectively, a case which must be considered, is if, as in Fig. 6, both rails 16 and 17 approach the tower at the same level, but at a considerable distance apart. Naturally a great number of variations are possible, e. the rails of the high speed railway may be entirely outside the tower, further two automobile roads may be arranged outside and four inside, and more roads may be arranged side by side, the number of threads may be increased indefinitely by increasing the diameter of the tower.

also each direction of rail can have a separate tower and as shown before the inner and outer space may be employed in various ways.

The final determination of the traliic tower in the great town is to serve for the reorganization of high speed passenger traflie in the widest sense of the Word and to bring the great-town problem and the settlements problem nearer to solution.

In order to make this clear, further explanation is necessary.

The crowding together'of the businessmen in the great towns, particularly in the cities cannot be done away with by legislatidn or instruction, because all forms of life existing in economic societies, animals as well as men, have possessed this instinct for a countless number of years; consider the ants and bees. in this way these forms of life follow the natural in'ipiiilseto take the line of leastresistance, and to avoid all wasted energy, naking the total effect of the social org ism as great as possible.

Human intentions can be very disastrous if careful use is not made of the existing scientific knowledge and technical ability, or if one popular branch of technique is developed without foresight. The settlement problem has in this way reached a crisis, e. g. the sky-scraper has reached such a size, that traffic is incapable of serving it. Therefore the trafiic system must be reorganized. This consists not only in constructing new means of transport, that shall convey passengers quicker, more safely, more conveniently and economically, but these new means of' transport must be so suited to the settlement that the people do not only take advantage of these new t 'afric means if they are fortunate enough, to be inside the settlement, but that all inefficiency in changing the means of transport is reduced to a minimum. I I

For the new means of transport in question:

1. High speed suspension railway for very high speed and rapid frequency of cars.

2. Normal railways of all kinds, specially underground railways and tubes.

3. Intensive transport means, rolling platforms or platforms with feederban'ils or similar.

4. Automobiles.

5. Express-submarines.

6. Air-craft.

All these 6 means of transport have very sharply separated duties. a

The high speed suspension railway serves for passenger trafiicfor great distances over land underground railways and tubes for the traffic between the city and the subrnbs, rolling platform and feederband within the city itself, automobiles for shorter distances over land, expresssubmarines for sea-voyages; as accelerator "for sea-traflic in favourable weather, air-craft.

This may be more specifically illustrated. by means of the birds-eye view of the ideal city in Fig. 7. The circular enclosure is the city itself. It is the center of intensivebusiness life. It contains a great number sky-scrapers, the various stories of which are connected by lifts. From the street level people reach by means of the feederbands the endless rolling platform 27, which may marine stations and aerodromes.

The purpose of the invention is to con struct' buildings as stations for the various means of transport, so that the whole traflic system may operate with the maximum efiiciency. This purpose is reached as shown in Fig. 7 by means of the towerlike buildings 30, 31, 31

Such a traflic tower is similar to those shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The lifts arranged in the center of the whole building run from the cellar to the top-story. On the lowest floor is a feederband station, by means of which people can reach the main-platform.

28. Further terminal stations are provided for the high speed suspension railway 33, if itcis led to the town by means of tunnels. This terminal station of the high speed suspension railway can also be arranged in the upper stories, if the suspension railway for example must cross a great river, used by great ships, and consequently must enter the town by means of a great bridge 36', supposing the buildings are too numerous. It can also be placed at another part of the main-platforms 28, in order that the tower can serve for overcoming differences of elevation, as shown in the Figs. 4 and 5. Within or immediately adjoining the foot of the tower is the station 34 for the express-submarines. These have nothing else to do with this invention and need only be described as small, quick steamers, which sail at frequent intervals in good weather on the surface and underneath the surface in bad weather. The top-platform 35 is greater than the plan area of the tower, where possible rectangular and 'turnable. Air-craft with their hangars outside the town or in the upper part of the tower, use this platform for taking up and setting down their passengers, weather permitting. In Fig. 7 the number indicates the above described tower. Numbers 31 and 31 are towers without submarine stations. 32 are automobile roads, that converge on the towers.

The manner, in which the trafic is carried out by means of these above described arrangements, will be now explained by a concrete example. Suppose the town shown in Fig. 7 to be New York.

1. Astarts with'his automobile from*l1is villa at the seashore, drives by the road 32 to the tower 30, garages his auto inside,'drops down by a lift to the feeder-bands and boards the platform 28 for the tower 31, travels to Chicago by the high :speed suspension railway 33 and returns home in the same manner.

2. Btravels by a tube from a suburb of New York and arrives at the station 29, comes by means of the feed-erbands to the mainplatform 28, from which by means of a city-platform 27 he reaches his office, by means of the platforms 27 and 28 and the tower 30; he travels to Boston with the high speed suspension railway.

3. C in the morning leaves his countryhouse in the neighbourhood of New York in his automobile and travels by the road 32 to the tower 31*, garages his car and reaches his ofiice by means of the platforms 28 and 27, and leaves the city in the reverse manner, and so on every day.

4. D arrives from Chicago with the high speed suspension railway 33 at the tower 31*, travels by meansof the platform 28 to the tower 30 and takes an express-submarine at the station 34 via Azores to Lisbon, from where he travels to Berlin by high speed suspension railway.

5. R will make the same journey. The favourable weather makes air travel safe.

He then goes to the tower 30 and takes a lift to the platform 35 and takes an aeroplane to Lisbon via Azores. If the weather between Azores and Lisbon is unfavorable, the aeroplane descends at Azores and E continues his journey by means of the sub marines, which sail at frequent intervals.

These examples could be added to indefinitely. a

What I claim is:

1. Means for handling traffic in a congested area comprising a continuously travelling railway surrounding such area and provided with stations at suitable intervals, and also located on suchrailway a tower-like station structureof many stories and having a spirally arranged means for access to any story.

7 2. A means as described in claim 1- in which the tower-like structures are of such size that on each story is provided space for other purposes such as garages, ofiice rooms, etc.

3. A means as described in claim 1 in which the tower-like structure is provided with elevators extending fronithe top to the bottom of the structure.

4. A means as described in claim- 1 in which the tower-like structure is provided with terminals for high-speed suspension railways.

5. A means as described in claim 1 in which continuously travelling passenger conveyors are located Within the area and connected to the stations.

6. Means for handling traffic in a congested area comprising a continuously trayelling railway surrounding such area and provided with stations at suitable intervals, and also located on such railway a tower-like station structure of many stories and having a spirally arranged means for access to any story, said tower-like structure being of such size that on each story is provided space for other purposes such as garages, ofiice rooms, etc, said tower-like structure having also elevators extending from the top to the bottom of the structure. 7 1

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

FRANZ KRUCKENBERG. 

